Kindle Book Promos

Press Release

Award-Winning Book Highlights Challenges Associated with Mental Illness in Children from Orphanages or Foster Care

Scattered Links was selected as a winner in a recent book contest for its theme about adoptive parents struggling to help the children they bring home who have hidden mental and emotional trauma.

Los Angeles, CA, August 15, 2014 --(PR.com)-- "Scattered Links" wins first place in the Kindle Book Promos 2014 Book Contest and is selected as a finalist in the 2014 Reader’s Favorite International Awards.

The novel explores a complex psychiatric illness associated with children who are unable to form healthy emotional bonds with other people – most notably in adoption cases. The story captures the daily life of the orphaned in post-Soviet Russia and details the pain of neglect, self-worth issues and detachment experienced by children who have been emotionally or physically abused at an early age.

Author Michelle Weidenbenner said she was inspired to write Scattered Links after taking a trip to Russia to adopt a daughter.

“I’m very pro-adoption, but there are problems that can arise from adopting a post-institutionalized child, foster child, or any child, and I wanted to show this problem in my novel.”

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) isn’t a common theme of adoption books but it is a “real” issue many people don’t know exists, says Weidenbenner.

“It’s sad. Some adoptive parents find the children they’ve brought home to raise are too difficult to handle and case workers are forced to rehome the children.”

RAD is a “disorder that is rare but serious in which an infant or young child doesn’t establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers,” according to http://www.mayoclinic.org.

The illness develops if a child’s basic needs are not met before reaching the age of 5. Addressing the problem isn’t easy. The Mayo Clinic suggests a comprehensive psychiatric assessment and an individualized treatment plan.

Weidenbenner is hoping her novel will be an “eye-opener” for people, especially adults seeking to adopt children.

“I’m a sucker for emotional stories.”

This is Weidenbenner’s second book. Her first release, "Cache a Predator" is available in geocaching sites throughout the United States and both books are also on sale at Amazon.